Place: Makuhari Messe Convention Center, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

As always this time of year, it's good to be back in Tokyo. This is Paul "Amish" Koehler from the floor of the Makuhari Messe Convention Center, and this year's show is a big one; recession or not. This time around I'm on the floor covering the show on Saturday and Sunday, and those days are also open to the public for a small admission fee of 1200 yen (approximately $12 USD).

It is crowded here. It was so crowded that the media was allowed in slightly before the scheduled 10:00 start time to literally run to the various booths, despite the specific instructions of security guards not to do so. This is to be expected for an event of this size, but the crowds are particularly insane near the Square Enix booth. Actually, a good portion of their playable titles are outside their booth this year, most notably The Last Remnant and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. From a first glance this looks to have a larger selection available compared to last year, especially given the increased number of titles available for the current generation of consoles.

Prior to the start of the show the RPGamer staff conspired and came up with a list of wanted games. That list stands at about 15 or so titles right now, although there are a few extra that have been discovered on the show floor that might make their way on to the impression list.

The impressions are just that: impressions. When I do have a chance to play the games they are for only 10-20 minutes at a time, and the copies are incomplete versions; sometimes specifically made for TGS. The good news is that many of these companies have had experience with this kind of event and know to have a mix of both gameplay and cinematics. Fortunately there is more emphasis on the former than the latter, so it'll give me a better idea of what the game might be like.

So far I've had a chance to sample six titles; four from our list and two that were random discoveries. Not bad for the first two hours. Hopefully I can keep up this pace, but we'll see.

If you have any comments or requests, please send them our way. We love to hear your feedback on an event of this size. Even though this is my 3rd time covering the Tokyo Game Show, it's a pleasure to come back every year. From the initial looks of things it is a huge improvement over last year! Good news all around.

That's it for now. I'll be back with my follow up of the first public day later. Talk to you then!